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The city council in Fort Collins, Colorado, last night voted to move ahead with a municipal fiber broadband network providing gigabit speeds, two months after the cable industry failed to stop the project.

Last night's city council vote came after residents of Fort Collins approved a ballot question that authorized the city to build a broadband network. The ballot question, passed in November, didn't guarantee that the network would be built because city council approval was still required, but that hurdle is now cleared. Residents approved the ballot question despite an anti-municipal broadband lobbying campaign backed by groups funded by Comcast and CenturyLink.

The Fort Collins City Council voted 7-0 to approve the broadband-related measures, a city government spokesperson confirmed to Ars today.

"Last night's three unanimous votes begin the process of building our city's own broadband network," Glen Akins, a resident who helped lead the pro-municipal broadband campaign, told Ars today. "We're extremely pleased the entire city council voted to support the network after the voters' hard fought election victory late last year. The municipal broadband network will make Fort Collins an even more incredible place to live."

Net neutrality and privacy

While the Federal Communications Commission has voted to eliminate the nation's net neutrality rules, the municipal broadband network will be neutral and without data caps.

"The network will deliver a 'net-neutral' competitive unfettered data offering that does not impose caps or usage limits on one use of data over another (i.e., does not limit streaming or charge rates based on type of use)," a new planning document says. "All application providers (data, voice, video, cloud services) are equally able to provide their services, and consumers' access to advanced data opens up the marketplace."

The city will also be developing policies to protect consumers' privacy. FCC privacy rules that would have protected all Americans were eliminated by the Republican-controlled Congress last year.

The items approved last night (detailed here and here) provide a $1.8 million loan from the city's general fund to the electric utility for first-year start-up costs related to building telecommunications facilities and services. Later, bonds will be "issued to support the total broadband build out," the measure says.

The city intends to provide gigabit service for $70 a month or less and a cheaper Internet tier. Underground wiring for improved reliability and "universal coverage" are two of the key goals listed in the measure.

Further Reading

Building a citywide network is a lengthy process—the city says its goal is to be done in "less than five years."

Telecom lobby failure

The telecom industry-led campaign against the project spent more than $900,000, most of which was supplied by the Colorado Cable Telecommunications Association. Comcast is a member of that lobby group.

Fort Collins Mayor Wade Troxell criticized incumbent ISPs and the local Chamber of Commerce for spreading "misinformation" to voters, The Coloradoanreported at the time.

The pro-municipal broadband effort led by community members won despite spending just $15,000. More than 57 percent of voters approved the measure.

"We're incredibly excited about the voting results from last night," Colin Garfield, who led the residents' pro-broadband effort, told Ars today. "The tireless work our committee performed and the voice of the voters have been rewarded."

I am not sure I understand what argument the cable companies have that would stop municipal broadband. If a city wants to pay to dig up their own streets and run their own cables and setup their own network why would and the residents vote for it why does a cable company have any say whatsoever in it?

The argument is they would have to compete and that would mean lower profits for them and better prices and services for consumers. Of course they can't say that so they just waged a disinformation campaign about socialism and govt takeover of the internet so voters would vote against it. Sadly even though they lost, 43% of the population voted against their own self interests. Republicans have a lot of experience doing that.

I am not sure I understand what argument the cable companies have that would stop municipal broadband. If a city wants to pay to dig up their own streets and run their own cables and setup their own network why would and the residents vote for it why does a cable company have any say whatsoever in it?

I believe the answer to this is that in a number of states cablecos have gotten laws in place that stop cities from getting into the broadband market.

Here in Colorado, a city (or county) has to hold a referendum to override the "Qwest Law." It took two tries here to get past cableco money and allow the city to begin using our *already extant* fiber loop for residential service.

I am not sure I understand what argument the cable companies have that would stop municipal broadband. If a city wants to pay to dig up their own streets and run their own cables and setup their own network why would and the residents vote for it why does a cable company have any say whatsoever in it?

The argument is they would have to compete and that would mean lower profits for them and better prices and services for consumers. Of course they can't say that so they just waged a disinformation campaign about socialism and govt takeover of the internet so voters would vote against it. Sadly even though they lost, 43% of the population voted against their own self interests. Republicans have a lot of experience doing that.

Generally, competition between government and private businesses is one-sided (the Government is the far more powerful and deep-pocketed entity).

Are you fucking kidding me?! You honestly believe Comcast is a smaller entity with less money than Fort Collins' municipal government?! Fort Collins has around 161,000 residents. The city's budget is about $619,400,000 for 2017 and $615,500,000 for 2018. That's how much they spend and they have a reserve of around $1,000,000 as well.

Comcast, on the other hand, brings in revenue of ~ $80 billion annually (the latest figures I could quickly find were for 2016). Their operating income was $16.85 billion in 2016 with a net income of $8.69 billion. They have around 150,000 employees.

So tell us again how Comcast is such a tiny entity in comparison to Fort Collins, Colorado. I'd love to see how you spin those numbers.